Hello! My name is Mackenzie Leake. I've started this fundraiser in memory of my Papa (Donald L. Hicks) and in honor of my precious Mimi (Barbara A. Hicks) This fund has now been changed to the Barbara Hicks widow fund. There is a great and pressing need for Mimi to have some funds to take care of all of the unmet financial needs and obligations for at least a month or so until she can go back to her part-time job. She will need some extra funds to get settled in her new home and start this new life without her husband of nearly 48 years. We have seen a little over $1,800 come in so far. PLEASE help us share this on every platform possible! If you know someone who might be willing to make a donation of any size, big or small, we would be so grateful. Thank you and God bless! DETAILED UPDATE: Mr. Hicks, (my Papa), was very sick for a little over a year. He began to decline even more after an unnecessary neck surgery he had this past December. Around Easter this year, the doctors began to express their concerns that he had Progressive Bulbar Palsy (a form of ALS). He could not swallow anymore, and as a result, he couldn't talk or have any food or drinks by mouth. At that time they decided it was best for his nutrition and safety that he have a surgically implanted PEG tube for any and all nutrition/feeding. After a couple of hospitalizations from aspiration pneumonia, some imaging they took during the last hospital stay (from July 08 through July 18), revealed that Papa had previously experienced a few strokes. All they could tell us was, that the strokes were old, but there was no way to determine when they happened. He began to rapidly decline with his aspirations, and they felt it was necessary that he go straight from the hospital to a live-in rehabilitation/skilled nursing facility once he was discharged. The hope was that he would regain his strength through a few weeks of rehab and then go home with a much better quality of life and strength. The rehab facility worked with him in a lot of various physical and speech therapies, and we all felt like he was progressing each day in many ways. After the first week, they came to the family and we had a meeting to discuss the future plans for Papa upon his eventual discharge from rehab. After long discussions, much careful consideration, and lots of prayers the decision was made that my Mimi and Papa would move out of their current apartment home (for various reasons) and move into a retirement community that had on-site home health for Papa. The insurance only pays for the Home health portion of their new home, and unfortunately, they literally had no money to their name but a little over $200.00. At that time the rehab facility explained that they were granted one more week for Papa to be in rehab. If he continued to progress, the insurance might even approve more time in rehab, in weekly increments. They expressed that they thought he may only get one more week, so we had to act fast. Due to the urgency of the situation they were forced to find the right place to move into, pack up all of their belongings, break their current apartment lease, and move into the new place so that it would be safe and ready for my Papa when he was released from the rehab facility. Of course, this left a lot of things in a frenzy. My parents and my brother were able to find a new place, get their approval, sign a new lease, pack up their old apartment, and move everything into the new place. All of this was done between Wednesday, July 26th, and Saturday, July 27th. In addition to everything that had to be done, there was a great expense to move and pay the deposit and first month's rent for them. No one had the money needed, and the issues were pressing hard upon my grandparents. My family decided by faith to take all of the money we had in hand for the month of August bills, trust God, and pay the costs to rescue my grandparents. At this point, I felt that God wanted me to start this LFEBridge page to help with all of their mounting financial needs and costs. My parents would love to take care of all of this, but due to my sister Hannah's own health battles these past 2 years, they've depleted all of the life savings, and simply didn't have the means to help them financially. By the end of the day on Saturday, July 29th we had everything moved out of the old apartment and into the new place, and were able to at least organize a few little things. We all planned on spending the following Monday and Tuesday getting the new place completely unpacked, set up, and organized for Mimi to live in until Papa came home from rehab. During this 2 week period, various issues began to be revealed, including mental, emotional, financial, and physical safety concerns. Mimi no longer felt safe to be alone and began to stay at our home until everything was set up in the new place. All these plans took a very rapid and drastic change when early Sunday morning July 30th we got a call from Mimi. Apparently, Papa had a pretty rough night Saturday and was starting to aspirate and struggle to breathe. After several attempts to get the nurses to come and help Papa suction his throat (this was often done to help clear his airways for breathing and prevent aspiration) she in desperation did it herself. She continued to call for help and finally, 30 minutes later the nurse came and didn't bring the necessary tools to render aid. She went back to her station and got what she needed and when she returned she proceeded to lecture Mimi and tell her that she was killing Papa and that it was her fault he was choking. Mama was on the phone the whole time and heard everything. Finally, during all of this, they had a shift change, and the new nurse came in and was very concerned, by now Papa's O2 was under 70%. She called 911 and they rushed him to the ER. At that point, he was in a state of acidosis and was completely non-responsive. We had a brief prayer meeting at church that morning and rushed to the hospital. Within a couple of hours, they admitted Papa into the ICU unit. Shortly after getting into an ICU room, the doctor came and visited with the family. He informed us that Papa would most likely not make it very long thus some difficult decisions were made. By the next day, they called the family into another meeting, and there it was decided to go ahead and place him under comfort care. From that point on it would probably be just a couple of days before he passes. We stayed there round the clock from Sunday through Wednesday. Lots of tears, a few laughs, and some tough goodbyes were said, before my Papa went home to be with Jesus around 6:30 pm Wednesday, August 2. Soon after that, while trying to process everything that had been happening, we all began to search diligently for any type of life insurance policy, and there was nothing. They went to make arrangements at the funeral home Friday and quickly learned that they would need $17,000 in full by Wednesday morning in order to proceed with the funeral. Due to the urgency of it, it was at that time I raised the goal in an effort to get the funeral expenses raised by the deadline. It never came in. There are a lot of details, but after one final desperate phone call, it was discovered that my Papa's employer Wal-Mart actually pays for their full-time employees to have a life insurance policy. They had to do a lot of research and even told us that since Papa had not worked since last December there may not be anything, but they would at least look into it. While we were on the way out the door Thursday morning, they called to inform us there was a policy and that it would be just enough to cover the funeral expenses. They would send the check directly to the funeral home. We were so thankful and relieved. After this, I lowered the goal to $25,000.
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